Cast This: Johnny Depp out of "Fantastic Beasts" franchise
Tuesday, November 10, 2020 at 3:29PM by Patrick Gratton
Understandably lost during the fog created of election week, on Friday afternoon Johnny Depp took to his Instagram page, announcing that he was stepping down from the role of Grindlewald. The Warner Bros’ Harry Potter spin-off franchise, the Fantastic Beast series is no without a villain. Depp claims that the move comes at Warner Bros request following his failed libel suit against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the tabloid magazine The Sun, over allegations that Depp abused ex-wife Amber Heard.
The news comes after a tumultuous year for the Potterverse. Not just for Depp, whose years of litigation with ex-wife Amber Heard and whose substance abuse has made him tabloid fodder...
Depp's letter to his fans
The franchise’s original author, J.K. Rowling has been under fire with her frequent transphobic remarks. As the discourse continued Rowling doubled down on her rhetoric and pushed it in even uglier directions, to the point where she published her novel Troubled Blood, which unburied the age-old stereotype of transgendered serial killers.
All in all, it isn’t a great time for the Harry Potter franchise.
Rowling’s already cancelled (or on the verge of being so), the spinoff series has lost favor amongst its fanbase and critics alike after Crimes of Grindelwald failed to meet expectations, and the franchise’s meal ticket - a possible original cast reunion in the form of a film adaptation of the stage hit Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - seems all the more out of reach. Where does the Wizarding World go next? TIME magazine has already issued an op-ed asking the question whether the franchise outgrew itself and whether its time for the Potter clan to back up and leave. The fanbase however, are already petitioning to bring back Colin Farrell, a highlight from the first Fantastic Beast film when he played the villain role before the Grindelwald reveal.
It’s unfair to label Depp’s casting as the franchise’s biggest hurdle, nor is it fair to applaud Warner Bros for the decision to let him go. The allegations surrounding Depp had been prevalent and this late dismissal is three years too late to feel genuine. Warner Bros aren’t the heroes here, nor will the casting change fix the increasingly rotten structure. The franchise is grappling with an identity crisis. Rowling’s fixation on centering this franchise on Redmayne’s magical Dr. Doolittle and his band of misfits is disjointed and miscalculated.
The meat of the story lies elsewhere. It lies with Credence (Ezra Miller), the tormented other-cum-queer boy allegory figure, and with Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald’s battle for his soul. Potter lore speaks of Grindelwald’s talent as a master seducer, including Dumbledore himself. So why is the film depicting the character in an asexual fashion? If nothing more, the Crime of Grindelwald begs to be a Shakespearian tragedy of two age-old lovers dueling with the fate of the world in its balance, but it often resorts to CGI animal slapstick humor. Despite bringing on Grindelwald as its central villain, the film sidelines or even forgets the pivotal Credence-Grindelwald dynamic. The second instalments fails to capitalize the first’ brooding chemistry between the two, as played by Farrell under disguise. Depp and Miller barely share any scenes together, and Credence returning into Grindelwald’s fold is dealt with mostly off screen.
Having Farrell sparring against Law’s Dumbledore might patch up the rough edges. Farrell plays mostly into the queer subtext of his character, while Depp runs away from it. Making the villain eternally queer might be too big of a heavy burden for a kid friendly franchise film. Maybe the wizarding world can’t bring itself to bring outwardly contextualized queer people, especially since Dumbledore’s orientation in the book series was merely treated as an appendix rather then the shape of the character. But wouldn’t this be the most opportune time to change the tide on queer representation in tentpole cinema? Don’t the LGBT community deserve more than a fan servicy Sulu blink and you miss it same-sex kiss. Maybe Warner Bros should go beyond and cast an LGBT actor in the role. Someone like Lee Pace, Luke Evans or even possibly Rupert Everett? Or will this casting choice seem disingenuous considering Rowling’s recent stance on transgendered people?
Who do you want to see recast in the role of Grindelwald?
Reader Comments (15)
Patrick Gratton: Honestly, I disagree that Newt was never going to work. The problem is this is essentially two franchises, both interesting in theory, that wildly conflict with each other. One is a (PG?) wacky episodic heroic vet adventure comedy (maybe a continuous series, maybe a thematic series that continues with the other textbooks), the other is a dark PG-13 corruption tragedy (trilogy?). But 1. Rowling wanted both of them to be in the same package, the studio didn't spot the issue and tell her no, and, thus, NEITHER fully came together and 2. Both of those movies, even if they had a chance as a single package, suffered on two major mis-castings. Depp is obvious, even without the abuse charges. Even leaving aside Black Mass, Depp had still spent 2010-2014 mostly embarrassing himself and entirely destroying whatever clout he'd picked up with Captain Jack. But Redmayne as Newt was also a DEEPLY odd call. I didn't exactly dislike him in Theory of Everything, but I didn't think he was "charming blockbuster leading man" material and his performance in the first Fantastic Beasts didn't exactly dispel those concerns. Imagine if Redmayne was "Exposed Grindelwald" and...bleep, Matt Smith was Newt. I doubt that movie would be "great", but I'd say it'd at least be slightly more on target.
"Request," not "Bequest."
Can we just... delete the entire franchise? Honestly, Rowling has become George Lucas in the past few years w/ all of this ret-cons and revisions and all sorts of shit. Plus, was The Cursed Child really good to begin with? The Crimes of Grindelwald was definitely one of the worst films ever made and that ending about who Creedence really was I'm sure had every one who read the entire Harry Potter book and saw the entire film series scream "BULLSHIT!"
I haven't been a fan of Johnny Depp's work for quite some time as I feel like he's become more of a caricature these days but what happened to him recently is terrible. For all of the evidence that was presented about what happened to him and yet, the judge dismissed it as if it was nothing. He didn't deserve what happened to him and I feel like he just lost more than just his reputation but so much more. It also has me go South Park about what Amber Turd did to him... OH MY GOD... SHE TOOK AWAY HIS JOB!!!! SHE TOOK HIS JOB! DERKA-DER!!!!
Let's face it when was Depp good and not phoning it in during the last 15 years.
Frankly, fuck him.
@Strunk: Probably "behest."
@markgordonuk: Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Public Enemies and Black Mass weren't phoned in. YMMV on how "good" the performances were.
thevoid99: Eh, even leaving aside his roles in these two? Watch Burton Alice again. Or the Dark Shadows movie. Or The Lone Ranger. Or Transcendence. Or his parts of Tusk. Or Black Mass. And then get back to me about how much Depp "didn't deserve it." Yes, I AM, pretty much, arguing that his increasingly bad acting this past decade makes what happened to him some sweet, sweet karmic justice.
markgordonuk: 15? That would be 2005-now, and there are A LOT of things you can say about his Sweeney Todd, good AND bad, but phoned in isn't really one of them. 10 seems a more reasonable estimate.
Agreed on Black Mass being about the most decent thing he's done maybe even better than the set of nominees we got,sorry but he was hopeless in Sweeney Todd,struggled in Public Enemies and I never watch animation of any kind..
@thevoid99 If you’d actually bother doing any research, it’s pretty clear that while Heard was no sant, Depp was the primary abuser in that relationship. There’s enough video and witness testimony evidence out there. Although, considering you’ve called women who speak out against Polanski “dumb bitches”, this take isn’t particularly surprising.
Of course, his increasingly phoned-in performances, on-set behavior, and general messiness also have a lot to do with Depp’s current situation.
@Working Stiff
Yes! You're right.
Apparently Mads Mikkelsen is in early talks to replace him: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/mads-mikkelsen-in-early-talks-to-replace-johnny-depp-in-fantastic-beasts?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR09eEY0soW6ZEC_9K41LBg_9yISY0G8EIv9Z8-MgcS-1e3nlxkjAZbA6yU
AH, There is far more evidence of Heard being abusive to Depp. There is hours of audio where she admits throwing pots, pans and starting physical fights and being angry that Depp "splits". If you think the TMZ kitchen video shows abuse, watch the court one with the (not in TMZ) beginning where she sets up the camera and ending where Depp walks away and she smirks at the camera.
The judge chose to ignore the audio/video and instead believe Heard's denials in court as she was under oath. Depp's witnesses including police were not considered reliable even under oath.
Another example of problems in court finding. Depp said his finger was injured when Heard threw a bottle which shattered. Heard said Depp finger was injured as he smashed a phone against the wall. The judge said it could be accidentally cut on broken glass and just ignored the xray showing the broken bone.
This seems like the judge chose a verdict and then worked to make a judgement.
I am a woman who has been around long enough to know there are some woman who lie.
I don't much care who gets the role. I never saw a Harry Potter in the cinema.
@AH-So if a woman takes a shit on your bed or presses her cigarette on your face. You don't call that abuse? You obviously didn't see the video on YouTube about Woody Allen and the fact that he's been vilified for something he never did. Would you want me to continue in your blind crusade for social justice?
@Volvagia-I haven't really been impressed with Depp in the past decade. I saw The Lone Ranger and... that was shit. He was OK in Dark Shadows but let's be honest. Things like Mortdecai was just ugh... I never saw it but it looked awful as it's almost as if he's doing the derp-de-derp films like Tom Cruise is with his own derp-de-derp films. My take of "he didn't deserve this" relates to that misguided marriage he had with that psycho bitch. Honestly, he never should've left Vanessa Paradis in the first place.
I'm saddened by what a mess this has all become. I am a Harry Potter fan, I loved the books and found the film adaptations enthralling. Some were better than others, but I loved the trio and felt they faithful enough to the books to keep me happy.
But I never got past the first release of "Fantastic Beasts". I just didn't really like it. I also loathed "The Cursed Child". Then the Johnny Depp problem just made it all worse. Unpleasant. Tawdry.
Now I wince when I see JK Rowling's name, let alone some terrible quote.
This fan has had enough. No more. And I suspect I speak for a lot of fans too. Enough of this mess. What a turnaround, and what a shame.
Farrell was the best thing about the first film so I don't get why they wouldn't go back to him. But am a big Mads fan so if it's him I won't mind. And yeah the bigger problem with this series is it being Newt-centric. Kind of made sense for the opening installment but across the series - nope.